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From: peterdur@microsoft.UUCP (Peter Durham)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Re: 386 Enhanced mode slowdown
Message-ID: <59322@microsoft.UUCP>
Date: 26 Nov 90 23:08:53 GMT
References: <1990Nov16.195853.28171@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu>
Reply-To: peterdur@microsoft.UUCP (Peter Durham)
Organization: Microsoft Corp., Redmond WA
Lines: 40

In article <1990Nov16.195853.28171@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> mikew@proton.LCS.MIT.EDU (Michael B. Williams) writes:
>A quick update for those (apparently very few of us) who are trying to 
>figure out why DOS programs run so slowly in 386 Enhanced mode.  First
>off, some non-reasons:
>
>	1.  `Monitor ports' box checked
>	2.  Other Programs are running in background
>	3.  Using an SX versus a DX (from RONJ@lampf.lanl.gov)
>	4.  Lack of memory
>	5.  `Exclusive' box not checked
>	6.  ?
>
>If anyone has any things that they've tried but do not solve the problem,
>feel free to add to the list.  I'd like to go back to 386 Enhanced mode,
>but not with at a 60% speed penalty!

How about one thing that might?

I remember when I first installed Windows 3.0 that I had trouble getting a
favorite DOS mode game running at anywhere near the right speed.  I twiddled
a lot of the PIF file options and finally got something that worked.  I just
went back and narrowed it down to one, and here it is:

Detect Idle Time

According to the help file, "Some applications will not run correctly with
this option selected.  The only way to determine if the appplication will
work is to select this option and see if it runs more slowly.  If not, leaving
this box checked will allow other applications in the background to run
faster."

I also noted that unchecking monitor ports made the graphics update more
crisply, but it did not make much difference in terms of speed.

Hope this helps!

Disclaimer: I'm not in the Windows group, nor do I speak for them; I just
like their product.

- Peter